1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to brushes, scrubbers and general cleaning, and more particularly to a protective bumper cleaning attachment for vacuum cleaner heads.
2. Background and Description of Prior Art
Most carpeted interior spaces have mop-boards, or similar moldings, attached to vertical walls adjacent the floor. Mop boards protect the wall adjacent the floor from damage, commonly caused by vacuum cleaners, as well as provide some decoration and contrast between the floor and wall. Unfortunately, because mop boards extend somewhat horizontally from the wall, they tend to collect dust and dirt, and therefore need to be cleaned on a regular basis. Dusting of mop boards generally requires a person to crawl on their hands and knees around the periphery of the room with a cleaning apparatus, or to use a long handled brush type cleaning apparatus. In either case, cleaning the mop boards is a separate task performed independently of other cleaning tasks.
The instant invention eliminates the separate task of cleaning mop boards by providing a resiliently deformable cleaning body of heavy pile fleece on an exterior surface that is releasably fastened to a periphery of the vacuum cleaner head. The body dusts and cleans the mop boards and floor moldings as it is moved therealong at the same time the floor adjacent the mop boards is vacuumed. The body is not a rigid, but tends toward a generally linear extended configuration and is releasably fastened to front and side portions of a vacuum cleaner head with cooperating strips of hook and loop fastener.
A protruding lip extends elongately between opposing end portions of the body, and bending the body around the periphery of the vacuum cleaner head, in order to attach the body thereto, causes the lip to protrude forwardly and outwardly away from the body. The forward and outward protrusion allows the lip to frictionally communicate with the horizontal surfaces and concave depressions of the mop board, as the vacuum carrying the body is operated adjacent the mop board. Friction between the heavy pile fleece and the mop board as the body is moved thereagainst and therealong generates a charge of static electricity in the fleece. The static electricity enhances the dust gathering tendency of the fleece. The body is also machine washable.
My invention does not reside in any one of the identified features individually but rather in the synergistic combination of all of its structures, which give rise to the functions necessarily flowing therefrom as hereinafter specified and claimed.